Marion City Council appointed Nathan Stevenson to fill the Fourth Ward seat during its May 11 meeting. Stevenson was sworn in and began his term the same meeting.
Stevenson was appointed in a roll call vote with five votes. Scott Crider, At-Large, voted for Krista Halloran, and Dan Clark, At Large, and Bill Dichtl, Sixth Ward, were both absent for the vote.
Stevenson is a Marion native and works at Whirlpool Corporation as a setup technician.
The newest city councilor said he threw his hat into the ring after learning about the open position from Lori Stevenson, his mother and communications manager for the Marion Community Foundation. According to Stevenson, Mayor Bill Collins approached Lori Stevenson about the open position in his search for potential candidates, should the mayor have to fill the role.
“[I thought] Oh my God, we might get somebody younger on council that is in the beginning stages of their life rather than most people that are older and toward the later stages of their life,” Collins said.
The now-Fourth Ward representative decided to make his interest in the position known.
“I thought to myself, that’s a unique opportunity to be able to kind of get my foot in the door in politics in that way and serve my community,” Stevenson said.
In the Fourth Ward, Stevenson hopes to advocate for some improvements to the roadwork and encouraging the ward to participate in public discourse. He hopes the residents of the ward can be his “eyes and ears” for problems that arise.
“That’s kind of my initial goal is to try and help show people that I’m open and ready to listen for whatever issues that they’re currently having,” Stevenson said, “and see if we can build a little trust in the community because I think that relying on our neighbors is something that we maybe let slip by the wayside.”
When it comes to the city’s financial trouble, Stevenson sees improvement since City Auditor Vidya Iyengar was appointed.
“I hope to help be a part of that, even if we’re just digging ourselves out of this hole spoonful by spoonful, that we can make good forward progress with that,” Stevenson said.
The Fourth Ward seat was first vacated by Twila Laing when she resigned to become city treasurer. Later, it was filled by Shawn Wilson, who would resign a few days later due to a conflict with his full-time job at the Ohio Department of Transportation.
The most recent vacancy has created confusion on city council as to whether or not the next appointee needs to be a member of the Republican party.
Stevenson plans to sit down with Laing to “get up to speed” on the Fourth Ward. He also expects to speak with constituents to better understand the needs of the ward.
Stevenson was assigned to the street and sewers committee, airport, land and buildings committee, and the public utilities committee.
This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Nathan Stevenson appointed to Marion City Council
Reporting by Abby Bammerlin, Marion Star / Marion Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
